Welcome to reThinkable - my weekly newsletter where I share actionable insights to build a wealthier and healthier life.

It’s starting to get chilly in NYC and I’m not a fan. I don’t know about you, but for me, the cold weather makes it 103x harder to get out of bed in the morning.

Here’s what we’re covering today:

1. 💰The wealthy have this in common

2. 🪜The Ladders of Wealth Creation

3. 🚀 How to level up

Estimated read time: 4 minutes and 12 seconds

💰The wealthy have this in common

I came across Forbes’ list of wealthiest people on a blog post and I noticed something interesting…

Most of these people became wealthy by identifying a problem, solving it, and then selling the solution. In short… entrepreneurs.

This got me thinking about how an everyday person goes from:

Working for someone else to becoming your own boss aka “The Ladders of Wealth Creation”

🪜The Ladders of Wealth Creation

The Ladders of Wealth Creation details the skills needed and potential earnings at each level. As your skills improve, you climb the ladder going from employee to business owner, which naturally increases your potential earnings.

Level 1 - Time for Money

At this level, how much you make is completely dependent on your time, such as:

• Working a traditional salary job

• Working a traditional hourly job

Essentially, you’re trading your time for money and have very limited flexibility. Most people are fine being at this level. It works for them and it’s a steady paycheck.

But if you’re not fine being stuck here (85% of employees hate their jobs according to Gallup World Poll), you’ll want to quickly upgrade your skills to climb to the next step.

Level 2 - Service Business / Self Employed

At this level, you’re still swapping time for money, but you’re your own boss. You can decide to work yourself to death or just take it chill, such as:

• Charging $50 an hour for creating landing pages for businesses

• A teacher charging $20 an hour for private lessons

Many people enjoy this level because it’s more flexible but the downside is, you’re still spending a lot of time working and you don’t have any financial security. You don’t have a steady paycheck and you always need to look for your next client.

Level 3 - Productionized Service

At this level, you’re no longer trading your time for money. You might still sell a service but you have a team to help out or you’ve used AI to automate some of your tasks.

The beauty of this is you can earn money even when you’re not actively working, such as:

• Charging businesses $3000 for creating the whole landing page, and having your team build it

• Do-it-for-you automation integrations for other businesses

Level 3 sounds like a pretty great place to be but wait until you see Level 4…

Level 4 - Selling Products:

Level 4 is the big league where true wealth creation lies. At this level, you create a product and can easily replicate it with little to no extra work. Here’s what I mean:

At the previous level, you and your team might build a website for a client for $3,000 but you might only have the time and energy to work with 2 clients each month.

But at this level, you create a scalable digital product that you can sell for years to come, such as:

• A landing page expert creates a high ticket course that sells for $4000 each

P.S. An educational YouTube channel is a great example of this. You can create a video once and it can still generate views and conversions years down the line. If you want to learn how to strategically start an educational YouTube channel and turn it into an income-generating machine, reply to this email with “YouTube.”

🚀 How to level up

Jumping to the next ladder might seem easy on paper, but it takes work and effort.

Each level builds on the previous one. The skills you learn in Level 2 will be used at Level 4. That’s why it’s important to know to correctly move up the ladder. There are 2 common mistakes I often see people make:

1. They run too fast

Many people struggle to succeed because they’re impatient. They want it all, and they want it now. But if you immediately jump from Level 1 to Level 3, it’s similar to starting a video game on “Expert” difficulty your first time playing.

When it’s too challenging too quickly, you’ll tend to want to quit. Take it slow and enjoy the process. But at the same time…

2. Don’t stay too long at any level

Don’t get too comfortable at where you’re currently at.

The unfortunate truth is comfort is where all dreams go to die. Once you feel confident and ready to move onto the next level, do it.

Always be learning, growing and moving forward.

🔎 Think More

🐐 Warren Buffett just turned 93. His total return since 1965: 3,787,464%​

🌎 Compare 80 countries: How much of your salary does an iPhone 15 cost?

🥲 Speaking of 9-5's, fewer people are hanging out after work

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See ya next week, Vincent.